Azerbaijan, Baku, 22 January / Trend corr. J.Babayeva / The Azerbaijani National TV Broadcasting Council appealed to the President to render assistance in order to improve the production of feature films in the country, Nushirevan Maharramli of the National TV and Radio Council of Azerbaijan, stated in an interview with journalists.
"We asked the president to allocate funds to the Council to produce feature films," Maharramli said.
In March, at a council meeting, it was decided from 1 January 2008 to totally ban the broadcast of films (feature and documentary) in foreign languages via Azerbaijani TV channels. As the Turkish language is similar to the Azerbaijani language this was not included on the list of banned films. The council ordered all TV channels to dub foreign films into Azerbaijani from the beginning of this year. Those who ignore the order will be suspended.
According to Maharamli, a tender will be announced among Azerbaijani channels after allocation of funds. The winners of the tender will shoot feature films. The state will own of films.
The National TV and Radio Council of Azerbaijan will render assistance to channels which have material and financial problems.